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There’s a change of venue next month for our usual UVNA meeting – we’re making it a social event, a chance to socialize with your neighbors – buy some old friends a beer, and even meet some new folks. Same date and time, Thursday September 15th, – 6:30pm, at Small Bar at 2049 W. Division Street. We hope to see you there!

There has been a recent upswing in burglaries of homes and garages lately in our neighborhood. Most recently a multi-unit building on Damen & Iowa was broken into on Tuesday (8/16) which sparked the creation of a new private group on Facebook called Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Watch. Anyone on Facebook can request to be a member.

The Facebook group has immediately grown in number and individuals have reported numerous break-ins and break-in attempts that have occurred in the last month or two in our neighborhood.

Official Reports (courtesy of everyblock.com) include: ( The reporting on everyblock.com has a few days delay so the most recent burglary on Damen/Iowa is not appearing yet. )

August 7th – Residential garage burglaries on the 2000 block of West Walton and the 2200 block of West Augusta

August 6th – Residential garage burglary on the 2000 block of West Walton, Apartment burglary in the 2300 block of Augusta

August 4th – Theft from a porch/hallway in the 1000 block of N. Oakley, Vandalism in the front yard, 2000 block of West Rice

August 3rd – Residential garage burglaries in the 800 block of North Hoyne, 2000 block of W. Iowa (2), 2300 block of West Walton (2), and an apartment burglary in the 2000 block of West Augusta.

We encourage everyone to attend their area CAPS meeting to keep up-to-date with recent events, talk to the local police in district 13, and most importantly, get to know your neighbors. Ukrainian Village falls with beat 1312 which holds it’s monthly CAPS meeting on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at St. Helen’s School, also in the cafeteria, at 7:00pm. (Check the website for District 13 to see which beat your street falls within if you are outside of Ukrainian Village proper).

Two common themes have appeared related to these burglaries

Reports of a silver or gray Honda Pilot cruising slowly down the street as if looking for parking, but actually casing residences to find out who is home when. If you see a car that fits this description and behavior please call it in to 911 right away.

Other reports have been of a blue pick-up truck that looks like a salvage truck, also waiting, parked outfront or in back of a residence where it doesn’t really belong. CAPS officers have told us repeatedly to always call 911 if you see something suspicious.

Neighborhood Safety-What We Can Do

Attend your beat CAPS meeting!! Since beat 1312 doesn’t meet again until 9/13 , here are more things we can do to protect our neighborhood:

Take the usual safety precautions – lock your doors, windows, don’t leave items visible in cars, let trusted neighbors know if you will be away for an extended period of time.

Pay attention to your neighbors, to dog-walkers, regular alley scavengers – know who belongs and who does not.

If you see something suspicious or out of place – call 911. If you see it again call 911 again. CAPS stresses the use of 911 as a reporting mechanism – multiple calls for the same event/address/suspicious behavior draw attention to it – they are not treated as ‘duplicate’ calls. Surrounding neighborhoods (like Smith Park) rely heavily on 911 reporting by multiple people for single events.

Share information with your neighbors, whether it be online, email, or talking in person

If you’re a Twitter user be user to include @uvnachicago in any tweets about our area so we can retweet and share

Twitter users can also include our Alderman, @ward32chicago and @alderman_moreno

We can work together as a neighborhood to make sure our Aldermen know how unacceptable we find this increase in crime. The UVNA will be drafting up a basic letter to send to both the 1st and 32nd ward aldermen, and we will send it out to all our members to re-use so that we send a concerted message to them about these recent criminal events. As we’ve heard from other neighborhoods, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so to speak. We will post the letter on this site as well.

And again, please attend the next beat 1312 CAPS meeting on 9/13!

Update on the stoplight installation at Hoyne & Chicago

Per our last meeting with the 1st and 32nd wards, they have agreed to split the cost

both wards have allocated funds in their respective menu budgets

both wards are also supposed to talk to CDOT to see if they will tell us where it is at in the priority queue. Read more details on this issue and a recap of that meeting here.

Update on the Blue Recycling Bins

Most of Ukrainian Village has never had blue recycling bins. Now that the city wants to privatize this service, the word is that they have a bid out to test a private service against the city service and our neighborhood is high on the list to be one of the test neighborhoods – could happen this fall. Just waiting for the contract to be signed

Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Association Meet & Greet

We have proposed that next month’s meeting be held at a local restaurant/bar as more of a social event. Right now we are looking at the following locations – we need room for 20-30 people:

If you can suggest any other locations for a Thursday night meeting, please let us know at info@uvna.org

Request for Thoughts and Volunteers – neighborhood architectural tour/steeple-chase (as in Church Steeples)

We’ve wanted to get a garden walk or some similar event going in our neighborhood that focuses on the unique aspects of our area. The plethora of churches and their history and architecture was one such idea. We’re considering trying to plan one for next spring, summer, or fall. If you would like to help research a plan to put in front of our group for consideration, please send us an email at info@uvna.org.

The next meeting of the Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Association is Thursday, August 18th, 2011 at St. Helen’s School, 2347 W. Augusta Blvd., 6:30 pm. All residents – homeowners as well as renters- are welcome to attend.

This month’s meeting was focus on our annual elections and the review of plans for the construction of a new home on Walton Street.

Elections

We had one slate running – the current offices ran for re-election and were unanimously re-elected.

Paul Matwyshyn, President

Harriet Siller, Vice President

Marc Dimond, Treasurer

Samantha Arnold, Secretary

Street lights on Leavitt & Rice

There have been problems the last couple of weeks with the street lights going out in the Leavitt & Rice area. If you notice that the lights are out, please call 311 and report it so we can get the issue resolve.d

Property Review

We reviewed the plans to build a single-family home on the empty lot at 2018 W. Walton street. The owner and architect presented the plans, composite mock-up, elevations, and floor-plans, as well as answered questions. The UVNA approved their plans.